Series Preview: New York Mets @ Milwaukee Brewers

After they both split four-game series this week, the Milwaukee Brewers and New York Mets find themselves exactly where they left each other Sunday in Queens -- one game above .500.

That means both teams will be hoping to build some momentum back up this weekend in The Good Land. The Brewers are coming off back-to-back losses in which they gave up 11 runs after winning 4 of 5, while the Mets and Reds traded 1-0 games the past two days.

In terms of the Brewers’ pitching against the Mets’ offense right now, this weekend could be a matchup of the resistable force against the moveable object.

If there’s a positive over the past week for the Brewers, it’s that they managed a split without Christian Yelich in the lineup. He’s expected to return during this series, if not tonight.

Probable Pitchers

Friday, May 3rd - 7:10 p.m. CDT
Steven Matz vs. Brandon Woodruff

Matz effectively shut down the Brewers in his last start, keeping the Crew scoreless until the 7th inning, when Mike Moustakas was able to hit a 2-run home run. He’s largely been outstanding this season, outside of one disaster start against the Phillies that saw him get charged with 8 runs (6 earned) without getting an out on April 16th. Outside of that start, Matz has only given up a total of 6 earned runs in 6 starts.

Saturday, May 4th - 6:10 p.m. CDT
Zack Wheeler vs. Gio Gonzalez

The pitcher who nearly came to the Brewers in exchange for Carlos Gomez is seeing his 2019 numbers weighed down by one disaster start early in the year in which he gave up 7 runs to the Nationals. In 4 starts since then, Wheeler has allowed just 9 runs in 23 innings, striking out 28 batters -- including 7 shutout innings with 11 strikeouts against the Phillies.

Sunday, May 5th - 1:10 p.m. CDT
Jason Vargas vs. Zach Davies

The Mets decided they didn’t want to sign Gio Gonzalez because they didn’t see him as an upgrade over Vargas, who carries a 5.75 ERA into this start. He has limited opponents to 1 earned run in each of his last three starts, but those 3 starts have only covered a total of 14 innings, an average of 4.2 innings per start.

Previous Series

It was last weekend. Thanks to MLB scheduling, the Brewers will be done with the Mets for the entire season by May 5th.

Milwaukee took 2 of 3 from the Mets, including a 10-2 blowout in Game 1 and what should have been a blowout in Game 2, but ended up an 8-6 win.

Player to Watch

Pete Alonso was the National League Rookie of the Month for April, and the Brewers saw why last weekend. After going 0-for-4 with 2 strikeouts in Game 1, Alonso went 4-for-9 to finish the series, including a 3-run home run off of Alex Claudio in the 7th inning of Game 2 that brought the Mets to within one run at 6-5. He’s already accounted for 1.4 fWAR this season. In comparison, Eric Thames and Jesus Aguilar have canceled eachother out to account for 0 fWAR.

Statistics courtesy of Baseball-Reference and Fangraphs